How to write an essay

If you’re writing an admission essay for an American college, you’ll need to adapt my approach to make it more obviously individual although, even in these essays, admissions boards will

How to Write an Essay

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Alan Barker

How to Write an Essay

How to Write an Essay

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5.2 Supporting your thesis statement: building a pyramid 74

6.1 From head to page: ten tips for drafting more easily 83

6.2 Illustrating, citing and quoting (and avoiding plagiarism) 85

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How to Write an Essay Contents

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About the author

Alan Barker is Managing Director of Kairos Training Limited, a specialist consultancy that delivers training and coaching in communication skills, clear thinking and creativity

Kairos operates globally As well as working with organizations in the UK, Alan regularly travels to other parts of Europe, as well as working in the Middle East, Asia, the United States and Africa

Alan is the published author of sixteen books

Alan’s blog is Distributed Intelligence

Find out more about him and about Kairos by going to the company’s website:

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How to Write an Essay Introduction

my own thoughts into academic language was difficult.”

As the weeks went on, she realized that there was another question bothering her “Nobody told me that

I was entitled to my own views,” she says “The idea that I could actually disagree with the academics I was reading seemed crazy After all, they’d done all that research, and – who was I?”

Esther’s story is not unusual You may have come to college or university with little training in writing essays Even if you did well in secondary or high school, you may be unprepared for the challenges of essay writing at college: in particular, the need to research systematically, and the need to construct arguments in your essays

And so few students get any help Some tutors offer one-to-one help, and some colleges offer study skills sessions (although there’s evidence that students often resist the offer, perhaps because they feel that the sessions are remedial and demeaning) Again and again, I meet students who have never been told that there’s a simple system for producing an academic essay Neither have they been told that the essence of essay writing is constructing an argument, rather than simply recycling what they’ve read

With nobody offering this kind of straightforward advice, it’s no wonder that students can feel overwhelmed – or that so many resort to cheating

This book will help you take charge It will show you how to write essays that you can be proud of It might (though I make no promises) even help you get higher grades for your essays

Before we start, I need to make a few points about this book

First, I believe that my approach is broadly applicable to colleges and universities around the world The book is based principally on university practice in the United Kingdom, where I live and where I myself was educated But I’ve used lots of information and advice from students and teachers in other European countries, as well as from Australia and North America I believe that the approach outlined here will also help you meet the assessment criteria of the International Baccalaureate

Secondly, you’ll need to adapt my approach for different kinds of essay, and for different disciplines My own background is in the humanities, where discursive essay writing is the norm But the principles of arguing an academic case apply just as much to philosophy, marketing, law, engineering, natural sciences and management, as they do in English, history or modern languages If you’re required to produce experimental papers, or technical papers based strongly on statistical evidence, you might need to apply

my guidelines with care If you’re writing an admission essay for an American college, you’ll need to adapt my approach to make it more obviously individual (although, even in these essays, admissions boards will probably praise you for being able to argue a case rationally and in some depth)

As I repeat frequently throughout this book: if in doubt, ask your tutor what is required of you

Thirdly, it’s likely that you’re already using some of the skills discussed here Very few students start producing essays with no writing experience whatsoever Don’t feel that you must work through this book from start to finish Look at the chapter summaries; if you wish, focus on some skills before looking at others Those summaries are in the form of Cornell notes, themselves an extremely useful essay-writing tool, which I discuss in detail in Chapter 4

Finally, the material in this book might look a little complicated Be assured that my aim throughout is

to make life easier for you: to help you simplify and clarify what you must do to produce an essay that your tutor will appreciate, and that will do you credit

You’ll find out more about essay writing on my blog: Distributed Intelligence

A number of people have helped me to complete this book Particular thanks go to Celia Beadle and Professor Richard Toye, who have made valuable suggestions Thanks also to my wife Gillian, and to my daughter Imogen (who has contributed one especially well written example)

How to Write an Essay Why write essays?

1 Why write essays?

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Essays have different functions in different subjects Indeed, in some subjects, you may find yourself writing papers with different names: assignments, reports, or – as you approach the end of your course – dissertations All of these papers have subtly different conventions The skills I’ll be discussing in this book apply to all of them, more or less; if in doubt, check with your tutor or department head precisely what’s required of the paper you’re working on.

You will almost certainly be asked, at some point in your course, to produce a structured, formal piece

of writing So why are essays so important?

1.1 Your reasons for writing

Let’s start with your reasons Why are you working on an essay? Here are four answers, from four students

I spoke to Which one would be yours?

Here’s what Francis told me:



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For many students, writing – whether essays or anything else – is a chore They might rather spend writing time on ‘real work’: doing research, conducting experiments, creating performances or improving their management skills (Francis is studying forestry.)

How to Write an Essay Why write essays?

I have a lot of sympathy with these students We don’t all enjoy writing And it’s not always obvious why writing essays matters so much, especially in science subjects, or on more vocational courses What have essays to do with real study?

The answer: producing a good essay develops vital life skills We’ll talk more about these skills in a moment.Next, Sacha’s answer:



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Sacha wants to pass You may want to do a lot more than just pass Your grades tell you – and the world – how well you’ve done You want to do whatever’s necessary to gain a good mark

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My top tip if this is your answer: find out what’s required You’ll find plenty of information in this book about what tutors and examiners generally look for when they’re marking essays.

Ask your tutor about their criteria of excellence Check also with your department or faculty head; ask

to see the guidelines for marking Your college may have a school of composition or writing lab that can give you more help

Third in line is Ahmed:

It’s to prove that you can think.

Here’s a serious top tip: an essay isn’t a container for information You shouldn’t aim to cram in everything

you’ve studied; you should aim to use what you’ve learned.

This is such an important idea that we’ll be returning to it often throughout this book For the moment, bear this point in mind

It’s not what you know that matters; it’s how you think.

How to Write an Essay Why write essays?

Now for Jo’s answer:



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Ah Jo has grasped an essential point We write essays, more or less always, to take a position and argue for it This essay gives you the opportunity to show that you can argue a case (Is it a coincidence, perhaps, that Jo is studying law?)

We use arguments all the time We argue for or against decisions in our families We make business proposals at work; we seek to persuade people to support the causes that we volunteer for; we may find ourselves engaged in community action or political work In a multitude of situations, we need to be able to argue a case, to counter the spurious and false arguments of others, and to persuade others to make sound decisions Writing essays develops that essential skill

In short: working on an essay helps you prepare to become a more effective citizen

My top tip here: constructing arguments well is demanding work Take time to learn some of the techniques we’ll explore in this book, and take time to practise them

1.2 What your tutor is looking for

Over and over again, when they’re asked what they want students to do, tutors and examiners say the same thing



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Why do they say this?

Presumably, because so many students fail to answer essay questions

And why do they fail?

Perhaps because they find answering the question difficult Perhaps because they aren’t sure how to

construct an answer Perhaps because too few students are taught the skills necessary to answer essay questions: the skills of argumentation and explanation

Your most important task in writing an essay is to answer the question.

Beyond that? Well, we can reasonably expect that your tutor will want your essay to demonstrate that you can do five things

1 Answer the question

2 Demonstrate broad and critical reading

3 Present a rational argument

4 Write in an academic style

5 Present the essay competently

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How to Write an Essay Why write essays?

If you can meet those demands, you’ll have a reasonable chance of getting a good grade for your essay

So what do you need to do to meet those expectations? Here are the answers, and links to the sections

in this book that cover those activities

What your tutor wants you to do What you need to do To find out how, go to:

Answer the question • Understand the question

• Identify how you need to

answer it

• Put the question in context

• Write a predictive thesis

• Read enough to encompass the

question and its context

• Analyse and evaluate what you

read

• Use what you read in your text

4.2.2 Gathering information 4.2.3 Refining your thesis statement

Present a rational argument • Write a definitive thesis

statement

• Construct an argument to

support your thesis

• Use logic and evidence to

support your argument

• Format the essay well

7.2 Bringing paragraphs under control

7.3 Constructing straightforward sentences

7.4 Using words well 7.5 Developing your style 8.1 Presenting your essay well

Your tutor or college should be able to provide you with a list of the criteria by which they grade essays and exam answers You can find a link to the assessment criteria used by the International Baccalaureate

in the appendix

1.3 The real reason for writing a good essay

Writing an essay is an important part of your learning

• Essay-writing deepens your understanding of the subject you’re studying

• Essay-writing is a major element in assessing your progress

And, most importantly:

• Essay-writing helps you think better

So: if you were to ask me why I write essays, I’d say:



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What about being creative? Some students tell me they think essay writing stifles their creativity

Academic writing can often seem impersonal, and lacking in opportunities to do our own thing Actually, certain essay assignments ask you explicitly to develop a more personal perspective on something: college application essays and personal statements are common examples

In this book, I’ll be concentrating on more discursive, analytical essays These may not feel like creative

assignments But in fact, constructing an argument is as creative as constructing a story or a house After all, in constructing an argument, you have to:

• create ideas from information;

• create arguments from ideas;

• create academic discourse to present your arguments; and

• create a conversation with your tutor and the academic community

Your tutor may demand that your essay displays objectivity and contains hard evidence; but they also want you to say something new Academic work can, and should be, excitingly creative

How to Write an Essay What is an essay?

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The word ‘essay’ originally meant ‘a trial, test or experiment’ (The French verb, essayer, means ‘to try’.)

In 1580, Michel de Montaigne published a large book of short pieces giving his opinions about various

subjects, which he called essais Seventeen years later, Francis Bacon published a smaller though no less influential collection, which he called essays.

And the name stuck

Think of an essay as a thought experiment An essay takes an idea on a journey; the best essays arrive somewhere interesting

2.1 The three defining features of an essay

An essay does three things

• It addresses a topic.

• It answers a question.

• And it (usually) takes the form of an argument.

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How to Write an Essay What is an essay?

2.1.1 Finding your topic: where do you stand?

First, an essay addresses a topic.

Many textbooks will tell you that a topic is the essay’s subject That’s not quite true An essay’s subject

is simply what it’s about: it’s a label, like the label you might put on a box file, or the name you’d give to

a folder on your computer

An essay’s topic is the position it takes on the subject (The word derives from the Greek word topos,

meaning ‘place’.)

Your essay’s topic expresses your view on the subject.

To find your topic, ask:

If the subject of your essay is nuclear power, potential topics might be:

Why nuclear power has proved popular as a source of energy generation How nuclear power compares with other forms of energy generation in terms of cost, environmental impact or social acceptability How nuclear power technology has developed over the last twenty years

If you’re writing a dissertation or a post-graduate thesis (for a PhD, for example), you’ll be asked to choose your own topic: you may spend some time with your supervisor refining that topic If you’ve been set an essay to write, then the topic will be indicated or suggested by the question you’ve been given

2.1.2 What question are you answering?

The problem is that, sometimes, the question doesn’t look like a question Many essay questions are in the

form of instructions These instructions are contained in directive words: for example, ‘outline’, ‘compare

and contrast’ or – that word guaranteed to strike fear into the heart of any essay writer – ‘discuss’.We’ll explore these directive words, and how to interpret them, in Chapter 4

Your must answer the question But you’ll need to do more: you have to support that answer with an

argument

2.1.3 What do you mean, ‘argument’?

We tend to use the word ‘argument’ to mean a disagreement In this kind of argument, people exchange views, often in a heated, emotionally charged way Everyday arguments of this kind often revolve around feelings or moral issues

But we can also use the word ‘argue’ in the sense of ‘making a case’ We use this meaning of the word for more formal situations: we might talk about a lawyer arguing her case in court, or a politician arguing for reduced taxes

This is the kind of argument you need to construct in your essay The argument should address the topic and answer the question

An essay takes your reader on a journey, from introduction to conclusion.

Three elements of an argument

An academic argument is made up of three elements

• A claim that you are arguing for

• A reason to support that claim

• Reasoning and evidence to link the reason to the claim

In its simplest form, an argument takes the form:

[Claim] because [Reason].

We use arguments all the time

How to Write an Essay What is an essay?

Argumentation is a life skill If you can argue well, you’ll be able to persuade others But effective argumentation isn’t just about winning arguments and getting your own way The more skilfully you can argue, the better you become at thinking critically, weighing evidence and making good choices The more effectively you can argue, the more easily you’ll be able to see through the phoney arguments

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Academic arguments

In academic writing, we usually call an argument’s claim a thesis or thesis statement; and we’ll use those

words in this book A well constructed essay uses two elements to support its thesis statement:

• reasoning, which presents ideas in a logical structure; and

• evidence, information suggesting or demonstrating that the ideas are credible or true.

If you can create a clear thesis statement, and support it with logically connected ideas and carefully presented evidence, your essay will stand out from all those essays that are nothing more than collections

of facts

And that’s the kind of essay that this book will help you to produce

A thesis statement can be as simple as:

A flame will cause a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen to react explosively to form water.

To support a claim like that, you’d use evidence such as:

In an experiment, a flame was applied to a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen and the reaction was noted

[supported by an explanation of the experimental process]

Claims can also be more complex To argue this claim, for example:

The policy of apartheid in South Africa was unsustainable, given the actions of the government in maintaining it.

– you might create a connected argument along these lines (with suitable evidence, indicated in square brackets)

In the last two centuries, political revolutions have always come about as a result of the

government making and then removing concessions to a rebellious social or political group.

[evidence: list of examples]

The South African government acted in exactly this way in the 1960s and 1970s,

making and then withdrawing concessions to the majority population.

[evidence: list of examples]

Therefore, given these events and their similarity to events in other revolutions, the

end of the apartheid system in South Africa can be seen to be inevitable.

How to Write an Essay What is an essay?

Three types of academic argument

An argument in an essay is usually one of three kinds

• An argument claiming that something is true

Arguments using truth claims are most common in the sciences Most papers in scientific

journals use experimental evidence or research to support a claim that some aspect of the world is true

In science, of course, no claim should ever be regarded as absolutely true The importance of

a truth claim is not that it’s true, but that this is a new truth, not previously discovered

Rats that have had their adrenal glands removed become less aggressive.

Regular ingestion of aspirin has been shown to lower the risk of heart attacks.

‘Gravitational lensing’ is a previously unknown phenomenon that bends light in the presence of strong gravitational fields.

Papers involving arguments of this kind usually don’t carry the name ‘essay’; we’re more likely

to call them ‘reports’ – or, simply, ‘papers’

• An argument claiming that something should happen

Arguments of this kind (we could call them ‘polemical’) are based on deliberative claims: a claim seeking to persuade its audience to choose a course of action (We call them ‘deliberative claims’ because we’re deliberating what to do.)

All political arguments are polemical You might be called upon to make a polemical argument

in an essay, especially in courses on philosophy, politics, management or citizenship Such arguments cannot be based on experimental evidence alone; they will also involve appeals to values, beliefs and morals

The United States should lower the minimum age of alcohol consumption.

The rights of women should be strengthened in countries where they have traditionally been weak.

Capital punishment is unacceptable in any civilized society.

• An argument making an evaluative claim

Evaluative claims, like truth claims, propose that something is true Unlike truth claims,

however, they cannot be decided by experiment or measurement; they demand that we evaluate evidence: that we judge and discriminate it according to other bodies of knowledge, values or priorities

Evaluative claims will always be provisional; they can never be settled once and for all Evaluative claims create debate; they often morph into new claims as new evidence emerges, as research priorities shift, and even as fashions change Sometimes an evaluative claim seeks to bring out some new meaning in the subject matter of the essay

Evaluative arguments are probably the most common kind of argument in the humanities: literary criticism, history and art history They crop up, also, in the ‘soft’ sciences: psychology, economics, geography

Threats to order and its reaffirmation are at the centre of the tragic use of myth.

Mass education nearly always acts to reduce social inequalities.

Humanistic psychology relies more on categories of perceived need than on observed drives.

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How to Write an Essay What is an essay?

Evaluative arguments are overwhelmingly the stuff of essays (Remember Montaigne’s ‘short pieces giving his opinions about various subjects’?) An essay, almost by definition, deals in arguments that can never be settled once and for all; they form part of the ongoing debates that are the lifeblood of academic life

Most of the essay questions we’ll explore in this book are evaluative

What about a ‘balanced’ argument?

Students are often told by their tutors that they should provide a ‘balanced’ argument The term can often cause confusion, especially if those same tutors tell them to produce a ‘strong’ argument How can

an argument be both balanced and persuasive? How can it look at both sides of an issue – or all sides, if you can see more than two – and, at the same time, pursue one point of view rigorously to a conclusion?

In an effort to reconcile these two needs, students can fall into one of two traps Either they write a polemic suggesting that anyone who thinks differently from them is an idiot; or they sit on the fence and produce an essay that says nothing very convincing at all (“On the one hand, World War II was a terrible disaster; on the other hand, much good came out of it.”)

An academic argument can be both balanced and strong The trick is to consider viewpoints other than

your own, acknowledge their plausibility, and show how, in your view, they are inadequate or flawed Your own argument will be much stronger if you take on the opinions of others and find reasonable ways

to counter them If you flatly ignore those other views, you lay yourself open to the legitimate criticism that you haven’t even considered what others have thought and said about the issue

And that’s just not the academic way

2.2 Joining the academic conversation

‘Balanced’ arguments, in this sense, are at the heart of academic life That’s because academic conversations are always debates Academics take up positions and defend them; they respond to the ideas of other academics, by trying either to defeat them or (perhaps more rarely) refine or improve them Out of these debates, new ideas emerge, grow or wither away It’s a conversation – not always friendly or respectful – from which greater understanding will hopefully emerge

Your essay is part of an academic conversation.

When you write an essay, you’re being invited to join the debate By setting you a question, your tutor

is asking you to make a claim Indeed, that question may ask you to examine someone else’s claim and respond to it You could do so by:

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How to Write an Essay Get going!

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Eager to start? Have you tidied your desk, switched off your phone and cleared your diary for the next two weeks?

Or are you putting it off? Are you finding every possible excuse not to start work?

Do you find yourself:

• ignoring the assignment and secretly hoping it will go away;

• deciding to do something important rather than working on the essay (like cleaning or exercising); or

• taking a short break that mysteriously becomes a long one?

Even when you are working on an essay, you might be mismanaging your time For example, you might

be suffering from ‘analysis paralysis’: putting off the moment to write and doing just a bit more research

(after all, there’s always something else you can research).

Or you might find yourself drafting and redrafting your introduction, and never progressing beyond that first paragraph (Personal confession: I have this problem It helps, sometimes, to plunge in and write something in the middle of the essay, simply to escape the horror of finding that first sentence.)

Do you, perhaps, view the whole task with something approaching dread? If so: you’re not alone Most professional writers admit that the hardest part of the job is starting

3.1 Procrastination: the art of putting it off

Let’s think about possible reasons why you’re putting off the task Those reasons might be related to:

• the assignment;

• the challenges of study; or

• the act of writing

First, what’s your current attitude to this assignment? Does it excite you? Do you feel that it’s relevant to your other goals or interests in life? Does it seem overwhelmingly complicated? Or vague? Perhaps feel you should have studied more Maybe you know so much that you can’t think where to begin!

What are you feeling about your potential readers? How have they responded to your work in the past? How does writing at college compare to writing assignments at school? Maybe school was some time ago, and you’re returning to essay writing after a break

Secondly, how do you feel about study? College study differs a lot from school work, although your final years at school may have prepared you for the responsibilities of self-managed study Check out your current morale levels If they feel a bit low, we can help (Read on!)

How to Write an Essay Get going!

You may feel that there’s simply not enough time for this assignment If so, you’re in very good company:

every writer feels the pressure of time But college life makes many demands on our time; we must

manage that time well

A lot of writer’s block lies in our attitude to writing itself Writing, after all, isn’t nearly as natural to us as speaking Most of us have no trouble learning to speak; but learning to write takes years And different kinds of writing carry different challenges Essay-writing may seem hard; but do you get writer’s block texting your friends?

In particular, writing in an academic style may bother you Perhaps you feel you have to imitate the style

of the books and articles you’re studying: a style that can often come across as difficult, uncomfortable,

or even pompous

This is great! We can find all sorts of very good reasons to put off writing that essay Now that we’ve

justified our procrastination – what shall we do about it?

Let’s look at these factors before looking at the essay itself And we’ll take them in reverse order:

• getting to grips with writing;

• getting to grips with study; and

• getting to grips with the assignment

3.2 Getting to grips with writing

We’re not born with writer’s block; we learn it, through our own negative experiences of writing.

That’s the good news Because, if we learn to be anxious about writing, we can learn to become more relaxed about it

3.2.1 Speaking and writing

We can overcome our fear of writing by bringing it closer to speaking

Most of us have no difficulty speaking, at least in private with friends and family Speaking sometimes becomes more difficult: when you need to say something unpleasant or awkward to someone, for example; or when you need to speak in public And, on those occasions, you might turn to writing: perhaps you send a text or an email when speaking would be embarrassing; or you write notes to help you make a presentation

But when we start writing, if feels different from speaking And that’s hardly surprising Writing differs

from speaking in lots of ways

Natural Artificial

Universal: almost everybody learns how to do it Only those with access to education learn to do it

Social Solitary

Spontaneous Can be planned and edited before the reader sees it

Speaking is local We speak using our local

dialect, using local pronunciation and vocabulary,

which contributes to our sense of identity

Writing is global It needs to be understood by people with many dialects: it therefore uses standardized forms of grammar, spelling, punctuation and vocabulary, all of which make writing less personal

Speakers use visual and vocal techniques to

support their words:

• voice (volume, pitch, pace) and

• body language (eyes, gestures, posture)

Speakers pause and emphasize Writers punctuate

Speakers can see the effect of their speaking

immediately: listeners can gesture, interrupt,

question and comment

Writers cannot usually see the immediate effect of their writing

Speakers can check their listener’s understanding Writers need to guess, research or assume their audience’s

knowledge, values, beliefs and interests Speakers can repeat or adapt what they say to

increase understanding

Writers have only one chance to communicate

Speech is usually informal, digressive and

repetitive

Writing more formal and compact It progresses more logically and sequentially

Speakers use simpler sentences and a limited

range of connectors: usually and and but.

Writers use more complex sentences with more complex

connectors: however, therefore, although, if, consequently, in

addition…

How to Write an Essay Get going!

Writing is less personal than speaking: the way we speak denotes who we are Writing, in contrast, is essentially impersonal You’ll experience this tension between the personal and the impersonal when you write an essay

3.2.2 Putting your thoughts into words

We can begin to take command of writing by making it feel more like speaking It may never feel as

natural as speaking, but we can make it feel more spontaneous

the same with writing The essay you’ll be working on is public If it’s the only kind of writing you ever

do – well, is it surprising that you’re feeling nervous?

Now imagine something called ‘private writing’ No reader apart from yourself; no pressure of deadlines;

no grades Private writing can be relaxing and fun It can also help you sort out your ideas and your feelings

Here are four ideas to get you going

Take notes Jot things down: your own ideas, things you hear people say, sentences in books or magazines

you read To do this, of course, you’ll need something to note with: you might put notes onto your mobile phone; you might use envelopes and napkins

Before long, you’ll probably feel the need of a notebook So:

Start a commonplace book Get into the habit of carrying a little notebook and pencil around with

you (I strongly advise a pencil rather than a pen; I’ve ruined too much clothing with pens that leak or break as I sit on them.) Use a notebook that can fit into a pocket, which will survive everyday battering.Shopping for that notebook can be a pleasure in itself Treat yourself to something different, but don’t spend too much money

to remember them, or imitate them And it makes you feel like a writer.

Incidentally, the name ‘commonplace book’ derives from the idea of topics – from the Greek word topos,

meaning ‘place’ A ‘common place’ is a common topic: the kind of argument that you could find useful

in different situations A commonplace book is, ideally, the place where you note down those killer arguments for instant retrieval next time you’re stuck for an answer We’ll be looking at topics later, when we assess the essay question

Write Morning Pages These are a bit like morning exercises: yoga for your writing The term has been

coined by Julia Cameron, in her book, The Artist’s Way Here’s how she describes them on her website:

Morning Pages are three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing, done first thing in

the morning There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages – they are not high art They are not

even “writing.” They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind– and they are for your eyes only Morning Pages provoke, clarify, comfort, cajole, prioritize and synchronize the day at hand Do not over-think Morning Pages: just put three pages of anything on the page… and then do three more pages tomorrow.

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Buster Benson, a Californian businessman, tried out Morning Pages

I’ve used the exercise as a great way to think out loud without having to worry about half-formed ideas, random tangents, private stuff, and all the other things in our heads that we often filter out before ever voicing them or writing about them It’s a daily brain dump Over time, I’ve found that it’s also very helpful as a tool to get thoughts going that have become stuck, or to help get to the bottom of a rotten mood.

Buster was so inspired by this idea that he created an online version called 750 words

Need a nudge? Try one of these questions for size

• What’s your main goal today?

• What do you have to do this morning?

• What’s your favourite movie? Why?

• What was the most amusing thing that happened yesterday?

• What’s on your mind?

Start a journal This is a slightly more formal, organized version of Morning Pages Every day, at a time

chosen by you, write down whatever you like in your journal: what’s happened, what you’re thinking, ideas and observations It should take no more than a quarter of an hour; limit the time you take so that you’ve a better chance of writing your journal every day

When you’re writing privately, imagine speaking Don’t try to be literary; listen to what your inner voice

tells you and write it down The more you do, the more confident you’ll feel about writing – and the

better your writing will become

Private writing also helps us think better One student told me:

3.3 Getting to grips with study

This isn’t a book about study skills We’re focusing on writing essays But clearly every essay contributes to a wider study programme, so we should pay some attention to why you’re studying, and how to study effectively

As we progress from school to college, we learn that we must take responsibility for our own learning You’ll be studying a wide range of topics, so you’ll need to decide where to focus your attention You’re

working to deadlines but nobody else sets the timetable; you are responsible for your own schedule

And you’re studying a good deal on your own If you need support, you’ll be expected to ask for it, not wait for someone to offer it

Look at the big picture Review the course and work out its long-term strategy Create a calendar and mark all the key targets – including deadlines for essays! Break larger tasks into smaller ones and allocate time to each (We’ll look at how to do that for essays in the next section.) When times get busy, write regular ‘to do’ lists to help you focus on the day ahead Set up an effective filing system so that you don’t waste time looking for material that you’ve been studying Find your way around the faculty, the library and other routes to academic information

Identify your best time of day for study.

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If you feel that you’re missing the support of a weekly timetable, create your own Vary it each week Work out your weekly timetable by checking the calendar, reviewing deadlines and clearing your daily

‘to do’ lists Map out your timetable for the week, including extracurricular activities and rewarding yourself with some well-earned rest and recuperation

There’s a great downloadable study timetable here

You’ll study a whole lot better if you organize yourself Find a good place to study and make it friendly Get supplies of basic equipment – pens, notepads, sticky notes, filing cards for reference, batteries for the computer mouse – so that you’re not wasting time rushing to the store for replacements

study-Feeling low?

Study is hard work Morale is bound to dip every so often

Take heart Here are some ways to make study less burdensome and more fun.

• What have you achieved so far? Sit down and make a list Don’t compare yourself with that brilliant swat

who’s the star of every seminar Focus on your successes.

• What aspects of study do you enjoy? Make a second list of all the aspects of study that you like, and that

you do well Check that you are giving enough time to those activities.

• What bits of study don’t you enjoy? That’s a third list Be really specific here; don’t generalize For example,

don’t just write ‘reading’; which books or articles in particular are a pain to read? Now: how could you do those things more effectively, or more efficiently? Is there anyone you could ask for some help or ideas?

• Organize! Tidy your desk, your room, your notes and your timetables Update your current ‘to do’ list

• Talk! Chat to your friends and to other students on your course Talk to your tutor If it feels serious, check out

your college’s pastoral system It really does help to talk: it will show you that there’s almost certainly nothing odd going on here You’re a normal person facing normal problems; the solutions that other people have found will probably help you, too.

• Who’s in charge here? Why are you studying this course? Who’s going to get the benefit? Who’s becoming a

more competent, knowledgeable, skilled person as a result of this work? Who matters?

You.

Study is part of the academic conversation It works best if you think of it as finding out what others

have said, working out what you think about it, and deciding what you want to say So:

• Reflect on what you read and work out what you’ve understood

• Join in with classroom conversations and seminars It will help you to find your own voice and contribution to the academic conversation

• Review the main learning points of lectures and seminars and note them down In

particular, note down what you said in seminars and how others responded.

• Make notes systematically, selectively and creatively Rework notes for essays and other assignments

• Reward yourself with weekly review sessions where you look back over what you’ve learnt, what’s interested you and how it fits together

• Think about how writing can help you learn

3.4 Essay writing in three stages: plan; draft; edit

Getting to grips with the assignment, of course, involves both of the factors we’ve just discussed: writing and time management

Remember one of the key differences between speaking and writing?

• Speaking is (usually) spontaneous: we simply say what we think, respond immediately to what someone else says, and add new ideas

• Writing, in contrast, is (usually) more considered We need to work out what we want to say, say it, and then check that we’ve said it as clearly as possible

Speaking tends to just happen Writing can just happen too (think of Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages) But a good essay needs to be planned, written and edited

1 We need to work out what we want to say, and in what order: that’s planning

2 Then we need to write it (Call it drafting.)

3 Then we need to check that what we’ve written is as easy to read as possible: that’s editing

Here’s a diagram of that three-stage process The numbers in square brackets are the chapters and sections

of this book where you’ll find more detail about each step

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you draft; and so on That’s fine But at least keep these three stages separate in your mind: don’t

try to do more than one thing at a time

And how long should you spend on each stage?

Students often ask me this question, and of course it’s impossible to answer accurately I usually wriggle out by answering: ‘it depends.’

I do think that planning and editing should take far longer than drafting The quality of your essay – the grade it will be awarded – depends on the quality of your ideas and the quality of your writing Planning helps you find high-quality ideas; editing helps you create high-quality prose The more

Try to keep each stage of this process separate In other words, try to finish planning your essay before you draft it And try to avoid editing your work until you’ve finished drafting.

You’ll probably find, despite this advice, that you’ll never quite manage to keep these activities apart You’ll have to revert to planning at some point while drafting; you’ll almost inevitably edit a bit as you

draft; and so on That’s fine But at least keep these three stages separate in your mind: don’t try to do

more than one thing at a time

And how long should you spend on each stage?

Students often ask me this question, and of course it’s impossible to answer accurately I usually wriggle out by answering: ‘it depends.’

I do think that planning and editing should take far longer than drafting The quality of your essay – the grade it will be awarded – depends on the quality of your ideas and the quality of your writing Planning helps you find high-quality ideas; editing helps you create high-quality prose The more time you spend

on planning and editing, the better your essay will be, and the higher the grade it will get

Drafting should be fast Always aim to draft quickly: imagine speaking to your audience, and write down what you would say to them

Learn to type!

We’ll talk more about drafting in Chapter 6 For the moment, let me make just one suggestion.

Learn ten-finger typing.

Once you can type properly, you’ll be able to transfer your thoughts to the screen much more easily And that will improve your writing So, if you don’t already type fast, take a little time to learn It should take you about four

weeks to achieve 70 or 80 words a minute; it will be one of the most useful skills you’ll ever learn.

Type “learn ten finger typing“ into your search engine: there are plenty of free programs to get you going and

several excellent programs at a very reasonable cost.

Take a look at your study timetable When’s the deadline for this essay? How many working days does that give you? (Allow some time off, if you can.)

Now: split that time period into three sections, roughly in these proportions

Planning 40%

Drafting 20%

Editing 40%

How does that schedule look to you? If you think you need more time to plan, stretch it; but other parts

of the schedule will be squeezed as a result

It’s better to have a plan than not to have one Every writer will tell you that there’s never enough time to write; we all want our work to be as good as we can make it, and to achieve good results in a tight schedule

is a challenge On the other hand, deadlines force us to make choices and stop – well, procrastinating!

How to Write an Essay Answering the question

4 Answering the question



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